Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm interested in a general recap of what's taken place up to now. I know this is included in the budget. But we had, of course, as Mr. Marston said.... In 2005, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities came out and said there was a $123 billion infrastructure deficit in the country left by some years of neglect by both federal and provincial governments in the past.
Of course, we came out with Canada's economic action plan in 2006 through 2009, a series of investments of $47 billion—$33 billion in infrastructure, along with many stimulus projects. Of course, that type of investment was geared so that it would be a tripartisan investment, looking for provincial and territorial governments, along with other parties, to invest. Municipalities put in a third, the federal government put in a third, and the provincial governments put in a third, in essence to cap up, to get us past the $123 billion and to try to recoup some of that.
I know the P3 projects had a late start in getting out, but we have had tremendous response from the FCM over our projects and over our investments. Have you seen the depletion of some of that desperate need that we had in 2006 when we took over as a government? Has that changed dramatically? Would you know of the inventory, of whether these projects have come forward?
I, myself, in northern Alberta.... We had a huge infrastructure deficit. We still have one in relation to our Highway 63 and other areas, because of the fast growth. But we have seen a tremendous investment by the federal government, almost somewhere around $800 million, in that area, over the last six years—provincial governments as well. We got our second, third, and fourth overpass in a number of years, which is great. And we've seen a bottleneck of infrastructure eliminated. Have you seen that across Canada as well?
